


Method of Escape

by spacedaydreamer



Series: safe end!vlr au [6]
Category: Zero Escape (Video Games), Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward - Fandom
Genre: Gen, finishing up this branch; it's the third ending, safe end!junpei au, safe end!vlr au, suicide TW
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-14
Updated: 2017-06-14
Packaged: 2018-11-14 03:25:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11199483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spacedaydreamer/pseuds/spacedaydreamer
Summary: There was more than one way to escape this horrible, horrible place... the true question was simply which ones were actually possible.





	Method of Escape

“So, we’re going with option C, then?”

Phi looked everyone over, her eyes scanning as everyone began to split up. Junpei couldn’t say he was particularly happy about having to pair up with K, but he wasn’t going to raise any complaints. Arguing now would just lead to wasting time, and that could get them all killed. Not to mention what it could mean for Quark...

“No objections? Then, let’s go!”

Junpei nodded, running with K into the green door. The primary door closed just seconds after they ducked through, and they waited in silence for the secondary door to open. It took a short while, but once it did, they found themselves in a room with a lever.

“Carlos? How is Quark doing?”

“I think he fell asleep.”

His breathing had steadied significantly, and he was no longer shaking. Junpei’s heart ached when he thought about what this really meant for Quark- but he couldn’t let himself think of the worst-case scenario now. It wasn’t impossible for Quark to recover… it was rare, yes, but it wasn’t impossible. He had to hold onto that hope, otherwise there’d be nothing left for him.

“I’m glad he is alright. How do you think we should proceed from here?”

“Well, we need to keep going forwards- I want to get him to the infirmary. I figure we’ll have to pull that lever to get the doors to open, could you do that?”

“Of course.”

K nodded, pulling the lever as asked. Only one of the doors opened, but that didn’t really matter; they only needed to pick one to go through anyways. Following through led them into a strange room- or rather, two rooms. The inner one was separated by some glass windows and a locked door (of course), so after setting Quark down, the two of them got to work on solving the puzzles.

It took a short while to get through the puzzle on the door, but they completed it eventually. From there, they had to boot up the pods- and that gave Junpei the answer he’d been looking for. Records showed that three people had been asleep in these until recently- it had to be Nona, Alice, and Phi. That was the only way that any of them being so young could make sense, after all. He'd gotten an answer to a question, finally...

And obviously, that wasn’t the only good news. Better yet was the fact that he could put Quark in this thing- it couldn’t cure the infection, but it could slow it. Slowing it was good enough for now. Slowing it would keep Quark safe and alive, which was all Junpei cared about.

He made sure not to lock the pod after placing Quark into it, but he couldn’t bring himself to walk away just yet. He didn’t want to just leave him- after all, what if Quark woke up? He might panic if he woke up without any sign of anyone around him…

“Carlos, we should open the safe. The others may be waiting for us.”

“….”

Not waiting for him to answer, K went ahead and opened the safe. Junpei could hear him tucking something away in his pocket- probably the key card, or perhaps a map, if he had to guess.

“Please, take this.”

“Right.”

“Now, we should really be going…”

“….fine. Okay.”

With a sigh, Junpei followed after K. They walked for only a minute, before Junpei stopped.

“Dammit, I just… I’ve got a bad feeling. I have to go check on Quark.”

“Are you certain? We really should be going back…”

“K, please. Just let me go check.”

The man thought on it for a while, before eventually simply sighing with resignation.

“Very well. We can go check on him.”

From the point they were at, it was easier to just go through the blue door from the warehouse and go back in through the green door, so that’s what they planned to do. An announcement sounded, stating that an AB gate had been opened- but Junpei really didn’t care. They had forty-five minutes left, and he had to go check on Quark.

He was surprised to find Sigma, Nona, and Alice by the elevator landing, although they appeared to be far more surprised when they came through the blue door.

“Carlos? K? Where’s Quark?”

“We left him in the treatment center, but… I’m going back to check on him.” Sigma started to bite his lip, his brow furrowing in visible worry. After a moment’s consideration, Junpei spoke up again. “Sigma, why don’t you come with me? K, you guys can go back up to floor A. Just… please. Keep an eye out for Quark, just in case…”

Everyone nodded, and they split up into two groups. Junpei headed back through the green door, but he couldn’t help but wonder why Sigma had seemed so worried. Did he have that same feeling in his gut that Junpei did? Was that even possible?

A quick scan of the room told him what he’d already known- Quark wasn’t there. He was gone.

“Dammit! I knew I shouldn’t have left him in there- what the hell was I thinking?!”

“Carlos, what are these things?”

“They’re treatment pods. I just… I figured that it could at least slow the infection, but he woke up….”

“Infection?”

“It doesn’t matter. Let’s just go look for him, there’s no time to waste.”

“R-right.”

He was grateful that Sigma didn’t protest, following along behind him as they went to search the rest of floor B. Their feet led them to the room behind the blue door, a chamber called the PEC.

“What… is this place?”

“Looks like a bunch of hazmat suits, probably for protection against viral agents.”

He was lying- they were the sort of suits that you wore when going outside on the moon. He could even see the oxygen tanks hooked up to them, but it wasn’t like he could tell the truth. The truth was far too dangerous, especially around Sigma.

“So, these things keep you from getting sick?”

“That’s the idea, at least. It’d be a better idea to ask Luna’s group about them, they’re the ones who investigated this place.”

“Yeah.” Sigma nodded, before his eye caught on something behind Junpei. “Oh, there’s a lift over there- looks like this place has two floors.”

“Let’s go take a look, then.”

The ride down felt far longer than it was, and Junpei’s search of the room rewarded him with nothing but disappointment.

“Dammit… dammit. Where the hell did you go, Quark…?”

“Carlos…”

Sigma didn’t say anything more, only sighing heavily and leading him back to the exit. Junpei wanted to argue him, he wanted to tell Sigma to get his damn hands off him- but he couldn’t. He was simply far too tired for all of this… he didn’t know what to do anymore.

His footsteps were heavy as they made their way back to the warehouse, all of Junpei’s energy having since left him.

“The floor B warehouse… it looks just the same.”

“It’s pretty close, yeah… but there’s still a couple differences. Like, the graffiti on the wall. And, those doors over there- I’d imagine they’re the next chromatic doors.”

“Huh?”

Sigma perked up as Junpei pointed to the white doors, obvious confusion on his face.

“They’re… white.”

“Yeah.”

“……”

“Ugh, it doesn’t matter. Let’s just keep looking for Quark, ok?”

“Look, man… I don’t think he’s here.” As if he could tell that Junpei was about to argue him, Sigma quickly spoke up again with his hands raised in a defensive position. “He’s probably gone upstairs, is what I mean. Let’s check out Floor A- who knows, maybe he went to go see if everyone was waiting for him in the warehouse?”

Junpei knew better than to believe it, but he nodded regardless. Getting mad now was pointless…

They ended up running into someone unexpected at the elevator- Dio.

“What’re you doing here?”

“Looking for Quark, what else?” It was clear that Dio could tell they didn’t believe him, rolling his eyes as he continued to talk. “K said the little brat might’ve wandered off, so I figured I’d take a look downstairs.”

“He hasn’t gone up to the warehouse, then?”

“Nah. He’s probably just wandered off to think about the game, or something like that.”

“No. Quark wouldn’t just wander off alone for no reason like that, he knows better.”

Dio raised an eyebrow, shrugging apathetically.

“Really? How would you know? Besides, it’s not like you can actually trust him- he could be Zero Sr, for all we know.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“You sure about that, old man?” Junpei narrowed his eyes, but Dio hardly seemed to care. “Hell, he’s probably off in some little cubby-hole, swirling a glass of brandy and laughing at us. The kid’s fine.”

It was idiotic to assume something like that, but Junpei wasn’t in a position where he could explain that. If he told them about the radical-6, if he explained to them why Quark was definitely in danger, they’d want to know how he knew that. However, that was the one thing he could never tell them. It was far too dangerous…

He was saved from any further argument by Phi, who burst out onto the landing and practically dragged the three of them back upstairs to the crew’s Quarters.

When Junpei saw the bodies, he felt numb. It was almost as if his mind was trying to tell him something- the picture felt like déjà vu. Already seen… but how could he have already seen this? It was impossible… he was probably just being reminded of Aoi.

The group didn’t even have time to point fingers at a culprit before the voice from the speakers sounded up again, warning them about the impending vote deadline. Junpei didn’t want to go, he wanted to keep looking for Quark- but he didn’t have a choice.

“I’m picking ally.”

“I was afraid you’d say that, Carlos.”

He could hear K sigh through the mask, but didn’t say anything to it. He only had 1 BP- if K betrayed after he’d said he would pick ally, then he would die. There was no way for K to pick betray now, not unless he wanted to become a murderer.

Neither of them said anything more, only going into their respective AB rooms. Junpei stared at the button for a moment- should he pick betray? Could he?

…no. He had to pick ally. There was no point in betraying, not when he didn’t know where Quark was. He’d ally.

Hardly even a second passed after Junpei left the AB room before he heard Phi shout, and looked up to see Dio making a mad dash for the number nine door. Everyone was shouting and running after him, and Junpei followed suit- but his actions felt hollow, as if he was only going through the motions of what he should have been doing.

Everything came to light quickly- Phi and Dio had nine points, Sigma had betrayed Nona to get himself out as well- and yet, Junpei found that he still didn’t really feel anything. He was numb. By the time the door had shut, he was completely and utterly numb to the world.

“I should… find Quark.”

K and Nona looked at him, but neither of them seemed to know what to do. Nona looked clearly distressed, probably because of Sigma, but… he found that he didn’t care. He knew that he _should_ care, Nona was someone important to him, but he couldn’t care.

Without waiting for another word, Junpei slowly began to trudge off towards the crew quarters. He had to find Quark…

His feet only stopped when he was standing in front of Alice’s body, his eyes set firmly on the handle dug into her chest. Whatever it was, it had killed her… he pulled it out with a grunt of effort, and found himself looking at a knife. There was only one thing a knife could be… he blinked with slow realization, as his mind put together that this had to be what’d killed Aoi.

Everything… all made sense. The crushing weight of it all seemed to break Junpei, and he felt tears well up in his eyes. Aoi had killed himself. Alice and Luna had killed themselves. And now, he… he had to die too. He had to get out of here. He’d _never_ be able to find Quark or Aoi if he was stuck here, like this. He had to find them. He had to die. He had to get out of this horrible place, infected with radical-6, before it was too late.

“C…Carlos? What are you…. _wait!_ ”

Nona’s horrified shout was far too late, as Junpei plunged the knife deep into his chest and everything in his world went red.

**Author's Note:**

> And, Dio-end! With this, the magenta branch of the game has been completed, finally. I'm sorry this one took so long to get out- it's not a very long fic, and yet for some reason, it's posed me the most trouble of any from this series so far.
> 
> Still, thank you all for your patience! I'm excited to finally get to the yellow door-route, there's plenty fun stuff that happens in that branch, so I hope you'll all look forwards to what comes next. As always, thank you for reading!


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